Murdered Datuk’s secrets out

GEORGE TOWN: The Datuk businessman who was shot dead in the Penang bridge rampage on Thursday was head of a crime gang involved in murder, extortion and drug trafficking, police said.

Datuk Ong Teik Kwong, 32, was head of Gang 24 and was under surveillance for some time, George Town police chief Asst Comm Mior Faridalathrash Wahid was quoted as saying in an exclusive report in The Star today.

“We have information that the members were involved in protection rackets but no one has come forward to lodge a police report. The gang is also involved in illegal money lending.

“It is one of 14 secret societies being monitored by us. We have a list of the members and know their movements,” he said.

The Star reported Gang 24 became even more notorious after it merged with the Sio Sam Ong (Three Little Emperors) triad, which was behind the slaying of six people in Taman Bersatu, Sungai Petani, during a pre-wedding dinner in September 1992.

Sio Sam Ong has been implicated in at least 10 murders in the state, dating back to the late 80s and early 90s.

Five skeletal remains believed to be those of gang members, found with hands tied behind their backs, were exhumed from unmarked graves in Mount Erskine in 1992. They were apparently killed for betraying the gang.

Ong was also among several people linked to the murder of a VCD seller by several parang-wielding men in 2011.

In July last year, police seized RM1.5 million worth of drugs and more than RM1 million in cash with the arrest of five people, including three Sio Sam Ong members, in separate raids in Penang.

On Thursday night, Ong and two others were killed while five others were injured when his bodyguard opened fire at them along the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway.

The Star reported that the influential Ong was also known as “Datuk M” for “Datuk Muda”, after he became one of the youngest recipients of the award. It was also reported his friends and numerous companies took out 50 full-page “congratulatory” advertisements, worth more than RM150,000, with a Chinese newspaper.

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